Changing use of camera traps in mammalian field research: habitats, taxa and study types

McCallum, Jamie L.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2907.2012.00216.x

Cited by 108 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The principle of this approach is based on well-known ecological species occupancy models, which seeks to estimate the occurrence of species in habitats that may be difficult to survey, and in which detection is uncertain (MacKenzie et al, 2002; McCallum, 2013). Our model is a corollary to such models; here the aim is to detect ospC types (“species”) within target hosts (“habitat”) through the use of multiple larval ticks feeding on those host species (with the ticks serving as the “detection” method).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occurrence and transmission efficiencies of Borrelia burgdorferi ospC types in avian and mammalian wildlife

Vuong

Canham

Fonseca

et al. 2014

Infection, Genetics and Evolution

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Borrelia burgdorferi s.s., the bacterium that causes Lyme disease in North America, circulates among a suite of vertebrate hosts and their tick vector. The bacterium can be differentiated at the outer surface protein C (ospC) locus into 25 genotypes. Wildlife hosts can be infected with a suite of ospC types but knowledge on the transmission efficiencies of these naturally infected hosts to ticks is still lacking. To evaluate the occupancy and detection of ospC types in wildlife hosts, we adapted a likelihood-based species patch occupancy model to test for the occurrence probabilities (ψ – “occupancy”) and transmission efficiencies (ε – “detection”) of each ospC type. We detected differences in ospC occurrence and transmission efficiencies from the null models with HIS (human invasive strains) types A and K having the highest occurrence estimates, but both HIS and non-HIS types having high transmission efficiencies. We also examined ospC frequency patterns with respect to strains known to be invasive in humans across the host species and phylogenetic groups. We found that shrews and to a lesser extent, birds, were important host groups supporting relatively greater frequencies of HIS to non-HIS types. This novel method of simultaneously assessing occurrence and transmission of ospC types provides a powerful tool in assessing disease risk at the genotypic level in naturally infected wildlife hosts and offers the opportunity to examine disease risk at the community level.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occurrence and transmission efficiencies of Borrelia burgdorferi ospC types in avian and mammalian wildlife

Vuong

Canham

Fonseca

et al. 2014

Infection, Genetics and Evolution

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“…It is also a key criteria for global conservation initiatives such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list (), which has been used to track the change in extinction risk of threatened species over time (Di Marco et al, 2014). Motion-activated cameras are one of the fastest growing techniques for surveying a wide range of terrestrial animals, particularly those that are rare, elusive or cryptic (O’Connell, Nichols & Karanth, 2011; Jamie, 2012). The advancement of affordable and reliable digital camera technology in combination with infrared triggers and time delays has enabled biologists to deploy multiple cameras simultaneously to collect data in an efficient and minimally invasive manner.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recommended survey designs for occupancy modelling using motion-activated cameras: insights from empirical wildlife data

Shannon

Lewis

Gerber

2014

PeerJ

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Motion-activated cameras are a versatile tool that wildlife biologists can use for sampling wild animal populations to estimate species occurrence. Occupancy modelling provides a flexible framework for the analysis of these data; explicitly recognizing that given a species occupies an area the probability of detecting it is often less than one. Despite the number of studies using camera data in an occupancy framework, there is only limited guidance from the scientific literature about survey design trade-offs when using motion-activated cameras. A fuller understanding of these trade-offs will allow researchers to maximise available resources and determine whether the objectives of a monitoring program or research study are achievable. We use an empirical dataset collected from 40 cameras deployed across 160 km2 of the Western Slope of Colorado, USA to explore how survey effort (number of cameras deployed and the length of sampling period) affects the accuracy and precision (i.e., error) of the occupancy estimate for ten mammal and three virtual species. We do this using a simulation approach where species occupancy and detection parameters were informed by empirical data from motion-activated cameras. A total of 54 survey designs were considered by varying combinations of sites (10–120 cameras) and occasions (20–120 survey days). Our findings demonstrate that increasing total sampling effort generally decreases error associated with the occupancy estimate, but changing the number of sites or sampling duration can have very different results, depending on whether a species is spatially common or rare (occupancy = ψ) and easy or hard to detect when available (detection probability = p). For rare species with a low probability of detection (i.e., raccoon and spotted skunk) the required survey effort includes maximizing the number of sites and the number of survey days, often to a level that may be logistically unrealistic for many studies. For common species with low detection (i.e., bobcat and coyote) the most efficient sampling approach was to increase the number of occasions (survey days). However, for common species that are moderately detectable (i.e., cottontail rabbit and mule deer), occupancy could reliably be estimated with comparatively low numbers of cameras over a short sampling period. We provide general guidelines for reliably estimating occupancy across a range of terrestrial species (rare to common: ψ = 0.175–0.970, and low to moderate detectability: p = 0.003–0.200) using motion-activated cameras. Wildlife researchers/managers with limited knowledge of the relative abundance and likelihood of detection of a particular species can apply these guidelines regardless of location. We emphasize the importance of prior biological knowledge, defined objectives and detailed planning (e.g., simulating different study-design scenarios) for designing effective monitoring programs and research studies.

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“…The majority of studies are on carnivores in forest habitats and most studies focus on population densities (McCallum 2013). While there are hundreds of studies based on camera traps published each year (over 200 papers in Web of Science categories ‘ecology’, ‘zoology’ and ‘conservation’ for 2016; WoS search as of 21 June 2017) papers quantitatively comparing the occurrence of carnivores in a range of habitats representing different levels of moisture and canopy openness are, to best of our knowledge, non-existent for temperate Europe.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carnivore distribution across habitats in a central-European landscape: a camera trap study

Pyšková¹,

Kauzál²,

Storch³

et al. 2018

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Quantitative data on local variation in patterns of occurrence of common carnivore species, such as the red fox, European badger, or martens in central Europe are largely missing. We conducted a study focusing on carnivore ecology and distribution in a cultural landscape with the use of modern technology. We placed 73 automated infra-red camera traps into four different habitats differing in water availability and canopy cover (mixed forest, wetland, shrubby grassland and floodplain forest) in the Polabí region near Prague, Czech Republic. Each habitat was represented by three or four spatially isolated sites within which the camera traps were distributed. During the year of the study, we recorded nine carnivore species, including the non-native golden jackal. Habitats with the highest numbers of records pooled across all species were wetland (1279) and shrubby grassland (1014); fewer records were made in mixed (876) and floodplain forest (734). Habitat had a significant effect on the number of records of badger and marten, and a marginally significant effect on fox. In terms of seasonal dynamics, there were significant differences in the distribution of records among seasons in fox, marginally significant in least weasel, and the occurrence among seasons did not differ for badger and marten. In the summer, fox and marten were more active than expected by chance during the day, while the pattern was opposite in winter when they were more active during the night. Our findings on habitat preferences and circadian and seasonal activity provided the first quantitative data on patterns whose existence was assumed on the basis of conventional wisdom. Our study demonstrates the potential of a long-term monitoring approach based on infra-red camera traps. Generally, the rather frequent occurrence of recorded species indicates that most carnivore species are thriving in current central-European landscapes characterized by human-driven disturbances and urbanization.

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Changing use of camera traps in mammalian field research: habitats, taxa and study types

Cited by 108 publications

References 45 publications

Occurrence and transmission efficiencies of Borrelia burgdorferi ospC types in avian and mammalian wildlife

Occurrence and transmission efficiencies of Borrelia burgdorferi ospC types in avian and mammalian wildlife

Recommended survey designs for occupancy modelling using motion-activated cameras: insights from empirical wildlife data

Carnivore distribution across habitats in a central-European landscape: a camera trap study

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